One of the most special things a teacher can do is create a safe space inside the classroom.  When children feel like they can be themselves, the learning will happen spontaneously.  Children are naturally curious about the world around them.  To create that oasis for learning, I want to put in place the following practices to promote these values in the classroom:

Kindness and Respect

• Help each other: Students come to the classroom with different strengths and as a teacher, I will need to be attuned to the needs of the class while keeping up the pace of instruction.  We can all achieve more as a class if students who complete their work early can find others to help along.
• Show respect to each other: In classroom conversations, we show each other respect by listening to what others have to say, and taking turns.  From time to time, students will have the opportunity to select classroom peer awards to highlight helpful behavior.

Growth Mindset

• Ask questions: There will be moments, hopefully many, when students encounter concepts they don’t understand.  Having a growth mindset means refusing to be stuck and to ask questions to discover how things work.  Putting this into practice, when a student receives some graded work that has feedback on it, the student can resubmit with questions to review that subject matter and deepen understanding.
• Agree to disagree: In the classroom, students will be encouraged to share their ideas.  I want to foster an environment where students feel comfortable sharing their thoughts even if others might disagree with them, because learning comes through conversation.

Self-Reliance

• Turn in my best work: During the school year, students will have a number of opportunities to explore their creativity and work on self-discovery assignments.  I hope to instill in my students the pride of creating something of their own.
• Be a citizen: Students should take responsibility for taking care of certain things in the classroom.  For example, one student can be responsible for keeping pencils in a certain cup holder sharp.

What classroom practices would you suggest for my classroom? Leave me a question or comment!